Virtual Newsbites: News From AT&T to ZTE

Whether they were inking partnership agreements, hiring key executives or new customer contracts, New IP Agency members were very active this week as Virtual Newsbites reflects.

Read on for more details about what's been going on.

Continuing this week's 5G partnership trend, Deutsche Telecom and SK Telekom are developing a "transcontinental" 5G trial network, designed to ensure certain 5G services can benefit from the combined operators' global reach. (See DT, SK Telecom Plot 'Global' 5G Trials and Partnerships Power Up to Shape 5G Standards.) The two service providers will incorporate virtualization technologies including SDN, NFV and network slicing in the trial; however, neither operator discussed a timeframe, air-interface technologies or frequency bands.

For its part, China Unicom Ltd. (NYSE: CHU) inked a pact with ZTE Corp. (Shenzhen: 000063; Hong Kong: 0763). Under terms of the "strategic cooperation agreement," which focuses on 5G and Internet of Things, the two companies will collaborate on projects and research into areas such as applications, products, services and market development, as well as the future directions the two technologies may take.

Hands Across the Water

Deutsche Telecom and SK Telekom are developing a "transcontinental" 5G trial network, one of several examples of the growing number of partnerships spanning 5G and other technologies.

The European Union may extend telecom rules to over-the-top (OTT) web providers, according to documents obtained by Britain's Financial Times. This will impact software such as Skype and WhatsApp, increasingly popular among users for communication -- and perhaps unpopular among law enforcement since these apps operate in a legal gray area. This extension is a piece of a broader telecom plan designed to increase access to fast broadband across the continent, FT writes. For years, service providers such as Telefónica and
Orange Business Services have decried the different regulations facing traditional operators versus OTTs, according to the article.

On the other side of the world, China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE: CHL) awarded Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) more than 30% of the operator's 2016-17 new construction of an optical network designed to meet the future needs of mobile requirements in the cloud era. China Mobile will use Nokia's 100G optical technologies and the Nokia 1830 PSS-24x packet-optical transport platform to support the operator's "Broadband China" initiative. The network will support more than 400 million users, according to Nokia.

Speaking of DT, the company this week unveiled plans to boost ethical behavior and reduce the risk of non-compliance by making the corporate culture more transparent, encouraging and empowering employees to speak up and creating a panel of experts to follow research and advise the service provider. The first step, says Manuela Mackert, chief compliance officer at DT, is analyzing the CSP's existing corporate culture and the causes of any inappropriate behavior. The panel, slated to hold its first meeting on Sept. 1, will then determine how to improve "compliance-oriented behavior corporate culture," Mackert adds.

During Nomura's 2016 Media, Telecom & Internet Conference this week, AT&T's Senior Vice President of Domain 2.0 Architecture & Design Andre Fuetsch told attendees that ECOMP will "become a disruptor to that old software stack world that many operators are in." Part of that disruption involves partnerships, including its newly expanded pact with
Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC); some results of this teamwork could appear in ECOMP, he tells the New IP Agency via email. "Yes where applicable, likely in DCAE and SDN-C (DPDK), as well as in other open-source initiatives," Fuetsch says. (See Partnerships Power Up to Shape 5G Standards). He predicted AT&T’sopen source Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management, and Policy (ECOMP) platform "will become a disruptor to that old software stack world that many operators are in."

Belize Telemedia teamed up with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and Huawei Marine Networks Co. Ltd. to build an undersea cable system to connect Belize mainland with San Pedro Island, a span of about 24 kilometers. The cable, dubbed the Strategic Evolution Underwater Link (SEUL), is part of the operator's plan to improve broadband connectivity and quality in the nation, in part via 4G and fiber. SEUL, which will start this year and scheduled for completion in 3Q 2017, will feature 40 channels at 100G per fiber over 8-fiber pairs, which will result in up to 32 Tbit/s, according to Huawei.

Steering the Enterprise

Vic Bhagat recently became CIO of Verizon Enterprise Solutions where he'll oversee the company's adoption of New IP and other technologies.

Former EMC and General Electric executive Vic Bhagat joins
Verizon Enterprise Solutions as CIO. He will "drive technology strategy and align IT with corporate objectives" across the organization, the company says in a release. His group also is slated to focus on the next generation of integrated enterprise communications solutions, Verizon Enterprise adds.

The next decade looks rosy for cable companies, predicts SNL Kagan. Driven by broadband -- which is expected to grow by more than 8 million in this timeframe -- total industry revenue is expected to reach $140.99 billion in 2026 compared with $130.57 billion this year, the research firm says. Video subscriptions will continue to decline but that drop will slow down to 1.5% compound annual growth rate versus 1.7% in the past ten years, SNL Kagan says.

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